Now is a Good Time to Jailbreak Your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

With the latest iOS version jailbroken, this is the perfect time for jailbreaking your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, so if this is what you've been planning to do then you should do it right now.

It was at the end of 2013 that the latest version of iOS was jailbroken. It probably doesn't seem that long ago, however it was more than seven months when iOS was originally cracked and ready for jailbreaking. Since that time there have been many iOS 7 updates, and this includes the big updates to iOS 7.1 which were responsible for patching the jailbreaking exploits used.

Then along came the new jailbreaking team called PanGu and they released the untethered jailbreak for iOS 7 and newer, creating this current time of the latest iOS version being jailbroken.

What this means is that, if your iPad or iPhone hasn't yet been jailbroken, or if you've jailbroken on iOS 7.0.X, you should probably update to iOS 7.1.2 and complete your jailbreak before the exploits used are patched up by Apple.

There's no guarantee that iOS 7.1.2 will be the final iOS 7 update we'll get before the arrival of iOS 8, but we could see the update iOS 7.1.3 released sometime during summer.

Perhaps Apple will patch the exploits used in the PanGu jailbreak for iOS 7.1.3 if it were released, but who knows which way this will go. If there was an iOS 7.1.3 release, it may be just a minor update repairing some security bugs with maybe some general improvements added, but it could mean that those minor security issues may be sufficient to smash the PanGu jailbreak.

If the jailbreak to iOS 7.1.2 is not patched by Apple, then it seems that iOS 8 will see the patch that kills off the jailbreak streak, plus the iOS 7.1.x jailbreak could create a huge delay in the final release of a jailbreaking tool for iOS 8.

Developers of jailbreaks who are responsible for releasing jailbreaks to the general public are very careful as to when they release them, with the discovered exploits being very precious - perhaps similar to discovering gold. It's due to this that developer teams such as Evad3rs release their jailbreaks at a very precise time so that they can't be patched by Apple until the release of the next iOS version - or until the next update of an iOS version.

As an example, a jailbreak for iOS 7 was discovered a long time before it was actually released to the public. In actual fact, hackers and developers were both able to get into the iOS 7 beta versions long before the iOS 7 itself was released publicly. The point is, had the jailbreak been publicly released prior to the launching of iOS 7, Apple would have had adequate time to patch the exploits and bring out a newer version, launching it as iOS 7, therefore ruining any jailbreak hopes for iOS 7 and basically completely wasting a jailbreak.

This is the reason why developers of jailbreaks keep all their secrets very close to their chest. Prior to PanGu iOS 7.1.1 being released no-one really thought that there would be a jailbreak released for iOS 7.1.X. It was feared by hackers and developers that if they were to release an iOS 7.1.1 jailbreak Apple would use these exploits to patch up iOS 8. This could even be true now that the iOS 7.1.X jailbreak has been released.

To date, Apple hasn't patched any exploits in the iOS 8 betas, however that will probably come in the summer when Apple releases the Gold Master, the last iOS 8 beta, being the final version prior to public release.

Referring to the difficulty of a jailbreak for iOS 8, developer @iH8snOw said that with what he's seen on beta 1 so far, it doesn't look as if there are many problems to make that impossible. We've already had proof that iOS 8 beta 1 has been jailbroken, but that's hardly surprising since Apple hasn't yet patched up the exploits.

The iOS 8 jailbreak and the iOS 7 jailbreak will probably be released on the same timeline, meaning that iOS 7 was released only a few months after the public launch of iOS 7 in September of 2013. Therefore, we must assume that we will have to wait a while for the release of the official iOS 8 jailbreak.

According to Apple, the iOS 8 will be released in the fall, but as yet without a specific release date. However, many beta versions have been released this summer so developers can try them out. We've recently heard rumors that iPhone 6 may be launched on 19th September, and if this release timeline is the same as last years, then the iOS 8 will be released just a few days prior to the launch of the iPhone 6.

It seems that all that's left for us to do is cross our fingers and hope that an iOS 8 jailbreak is released very quickly in order to prevent Apple from patching up any exploits. So let's just sit back and be very patient.